1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the packaging, display and storage of tape cassettes, particularly video tape cassettes.
2. Description of the Prior Art
At present, video tape cassettes are usually individually packaged and the packaging material employed includes an outer wrapping enclosing a sleeve or the like in which the cassette housing is slidable inserted. When the cassette is removed from such individual packaging, there is left a relatively large amount of packaging material which is costly and has to be discarded with an undesirable impact on the environment. Furthermore, after the individually packaged cassettes have been unwrapped, the consumer usually further purchases some sort of storage device for containing the unwrapped cassettes, and such storage device is also wrapped or packaged, as purchased, so that still more throw-away packaging material needs to be discarded. Moreover, when a cassette storage device or system is purchased, the number of cassettes to be stored seldom equals the cassette capacity of the purchase storage device.
A cassette storage device has been disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,549,775, which includes a housing having multiple compartments each adapted to contain an audio tape cassette, for example, of the so-called Philips type, with a leaf spring being provided in each compartment for urging a cassette therein into either a cassette stored position or a cassette removal position. Further, the outer surfaces of the housing are formed with tenons and mortises for interlocking with corresponding mortises and tenons, respectively, on other housings, for forming an assembly of storage devices. However, the housings have complicated configurations and thus or not easily or inexpensively molded. Further, even when the cassettes are in their stored positions, the respective storage compartments are open at the front so that the stored cassettes are not adequately protected.
In a known video cassette storage box, for example, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,339,162, each storage box defines an individual compartment slightly larger than the normal size video cassette and is provided with interlocking dove tail structures at the four corners of the box so that a plurality of storage boxes may be assembled together, either vertically or horizontally, to provide a storage structure. A slidable tray is mounted within each storage box and has a tab extending therefrom which extends out of the storage box so that it can be manually pulled for removing the tray, and with it a video cassette thereon, from the storage box. Once again, each storage box is substantially open at its front even when a video cassette is stored therein so that the stored cassette is not adequately protected. Furthermore, the provision of an individual storage box with a slidable tray therein for each video cassette results in a relatively complex and therefore expensive structure.
Additional known cassette containers are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,026,615 and No. 3,909,088, and are intended primarily for the storage of audio cassettes. Although such cassette storage containers are capable of being assembled together in side-by-side relation to form a storage structure for a relatively large number of cassettes, and also are capable of fully enclosing, and thereby protecting, the cassette stored in each container, the container structures provided to achieve the foregoing objectives are relatively complex and difficult to produce by molding or any other similar economic operation.